Petitioners not giving up on VA plan

Matthew Rink

Wednesday

Nov 25, 2009 at 12:01 AMNov 25, 2009 at 9:48 PM

When Stark County Commissioner Dr. Peter Ferguson called local, state and federal officials to a meeting in June to discuss the idea of transforming Doctors Hospital into a Veterans Affairs hospital, he said the idea would benefit the entire community.

When Stark County Commissioner Dr. Peter Ferguson called local, state and federal officials to a meeting in June to discuss the idea of transforming Doctors Hospital into a Veterans Affairs hospital, he said the idea would benefit the entire community.
“This is a wonderful opportunity,” Ferguson said at the meeting. “It’s something that will help everybody. It’s a win-win situation for all of us.”
At the same time, Beach City resident Lynn Latham and others began collecting signatures, attempting to petition officials for the same purpose. Latham and others were tired of watching veterans travel to the Cleveland area for treatment.
Ferguson and the group of residents soon joined forces. They seemed to be gaining momentum until Wednesday’s announcement that owner Affinity Medical Center would be razing the structure.
The plan had been endorsed by Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, who last month wrote to Veterans’ Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki pleading for the agency to buy and transform Doctors Hospital into a full-service veterans hospital.
“By incorporating the Doctors Hospital facility, you would make available an additional option for veterans on the eastside of the state who now must drive to Ohio’s northern border to receive care in Cleveland,” Cordray wrote in an Oct. 19 letter to Shinseki.
Ferguson believed the 220-bed, 272,000-square-foot hospital could be a “turn-key” operation, easily transformed into a hospital for veterans. Not only did he have the support of Cordray, but Sen. Sherrod Brown assigned two staff members to work on the idea.
The closest VA hospital to Stark is the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, which has campuses in Cleveland and Brecksville. Canton is home to an outpatient clinic.
The United States Department of Veterans Affairs also has hospitals in Chillicothe, Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton.
Latham, daughter of Dr. Edward W. Kenneweg, one of the hospital’s founders, helped collect more than 10,000 signatures to petition the government to buy the building.
Latham said she’s not giving up on the plan.
“It’s sad,” the 55-year-old Beach City resident said. “I was ready to call the people handling the sale. We haven’t given up. There’s so many people (supporting this) that it’s unbelievable. There are so many people coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Canton VA Clinic is out of room. It makes no sense. It would have been the perfect location.”
Latham said she planned to spend Wednesday phoning local, state and federal officials. On the wall of her home is a photograph of her late father. He was the hospital’s first chief of staff in 1964. She wants the photograph to return to the hospital walls where it once hung.
“I’d like his picture put back on that wall where it belongs,” she said. “That was my mission.”
Kenneweg and Drs. Thomas Violand, Irving Gordon, Isadore Browarsky and J. Arnold Finer each paid $10,000 to buy the land.
Latham said her father, if still alive today, would encourage her to “keep on going, don’t stop” because she’s come far.
“Maybe if we can all get together we can do something,” Latham said. “I’m not giving up. I’m going to keep working.”
Latham was inspired not only by her father’s history with the hospital, but also all of the veterans she knows who need medical attention. She said the idea grew out of the Beach City Army-Navy Garrison.
“I see people who have to go to Brecksville and back every day,” said Latham, whose father and two brothers, Bill and David, all served in the U.S. Navy. “Why go to Brecksville when they can go 20 miles down the road for the same care? In this day and age, that’s hard on everybody.”
Patricia Wolfe, of Brewster, helped Latham and others collect signatures.
“I’m just flabbergasted,” Wolfe said. “I’m very, very upset. I used to know all the doctors. I worked with so many of them out there. They said they hoped it would go back to the veterans. I went around asking people to sign petitions. I talked to (retired U.S. Rep.) Ralph Regula in person.”
Wolfe said the decision to tear down the facility is “horrible.” She, too, has no plans to stop pushing for a VA hospital. “If I have to go out there, I’ll stand in the way so they can’t do it,” the 79-year-old said. “Our veterans deserve better than that.”

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